As Fate Would Allow
by Super Nice Guy
Summary: Season two, starting from the final scene in the anime.
1. Griffith and Guts

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Berserk or the characters thereof. However, if the scriptwriters of the show ever get the go-ahead for a second season, and like my stuff, a job would certainly be accepted.

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As Fate Would Allow

_            Why? Why is he doing this?_

            This was the only thought that Guts could muster. Griffith, his best friend and only equal, here stood violating his one true love, his precious jewel, Caska. How could this happen? Could Griffith hold such a grudge against him now that he would do such things? 

            Now pinned down by a demon, with razor sharp appendage impaled in his eye, Guts tried to sort out everything he had just witnessed. A horde of demons had demolished the once proud Band of the Hawk. The men under him, Pippin, Judeau, Corcus, Gaston… all dead. And now this? A single word continued to swirl in his mind.

            _"WHY?"_

_            It is my destiny. _Though no words had been spoken, the voice of Griffin rang clear in his mind.

            "But… what about… your men? They were willing to lay down their lives for you!"

            _And indeed they did. I will remember all of them for what they've done to help me accomplish my dream, but this was the way it had to be._

"But," Guts said, almost in a whisper. "They were your friends."

            _Did I not once tell you what was required to gain my friendship? They were not my friends. They followed me because my dream gave a purpose to their otherwise meaningless existence. Many of them even knew it to be true, and yet they still gladly followed me._

"I just don't understand. And why do Caska and I still live?"

            _All will be revealed in time. But here is what you will be allowed to know. You will live to see another day, as will Caska. She will bear my son, and, in an ironic twist of fate, you will grow to hate the child born of the woman you love, as your father did you. And you will do so because you had no choice but to watch as the man you betrayed conceived him._

"Wha…" Guts couldn't even finish a whole word at this point.

            _And know this. Every day live from now on, you live because I allow you to. I have said it before, and I shall say it now. You belong to me. Everything you do is to give me pleasure, whether willingly or otherwise. My sweet, precious pet, you will live on as I watch over your life, and am entertained by it._

_            So this is it, _Guts thought. _I'm nothing more than Griffith's lap dog, here on this earth for his **amusement**_.

            _And even now, my dear pet, you see that events are unfolding exactly as I said they will. I hear your thoughts, dear boy, and I see your hate growing. _

            All this had happened as Griffith had continued to rape Caska, but now he had finished.

            _The deed is done. Now go. Entertain me._

And all faded black.

Well, that is it for now. Don't worry, I'll explain in more detail as the story progresses. Gotta keep you guessing what happens next or there's no fun in it


	2. Awakening

Disclaimer: I do not own Berserk. I never did. I never will. Quit rubbing it in.

To a friend who knows who they are, I apologize in advance. In the series, the last episode ends as Caska is raped while Guts is forced to watch. Not a subject I'm very comfortable with myself. I had to put myself in her place and imagine I have just been raped while Michelle watched. It helped (as much as it didn't) that Caska in the series is actually black, while Guts is white. So if I overstep my bounds, just understand I have no experience with this, but I would have to ignore a large part of the character development of both Caska AND guts. 

firedraygon97: Heh Heh. Jut wait till you see how far I really take Griffith

Badenalda: Worry not. All will be revealed in time. 

Here Goes. Part two. I had left part one open ended because I wasn't quite sure where I wanted the story to go. Thanks to those who reviewed. Things get weird (yeah, as if that weren't already the case.) Oh Yeah, this ones also going to be a lot longer than chapter one. On purpose.

For those of you who are not too fond of voice-overs…well, if you've ever seen the series, you would understand that they are inevitable if I am to stick to the tone of the story. 

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            _Where am I?_ Guts thought. _Have I died? Is this hell? No. Too peaceful. Heaven?_

His head ached, his vision as blurry as his mind. He lay there, trying to collect himself. After a while, he was finally able to sit up, he took stock of his situation. He was sitting on the shore of the same lake he had where everything had gone to hell…quite literally. As he looked around, he found that he was all alone, but for one exception:

            _Caska._

            With that realization, the haze and fog clouding his mind and vision cleared away. He and Caska had been spared. They were all that remained of the Band of the Hawk. They were all alone… and naked. Right now, he had to get Caska and himself to a place of shelter, clothes, and food. He could sort out all that was going on inside his head. He got up and walked over to Caska, who lay about 20 feet from him. As he walked, he noticed he something he had not before. Near the beach's entrance, he saw his and Caska's swords. They had been perfectly restored, and were laid out in the shape of a cross. _Such a cruel irony, _thought Guts. He decided that he should retrieve those before waking Caska. He walked up and grabbed them, then turned and headed toward Caska. She was, he discovered, already awake, and tears were streaming down her eyes.

* * * * *

            _Why am I alive? _Depression was not the word for what Caska was going through. _Why didn't he at least let me die with some dignity?_ Grief, anger, confusion, and guilt all merged to form a single, indescribable emotion in her. She had been fully aware, yet unable to act, as Griffith had ravished her. She had heard Guts speaking, but had no idea what they had been talking about, because she hadn't heard the thoughts of Griffith. In any event, she had been a little too distracted to pay a whole lot of attention to anything that had been said. Griffith had, after all, been raping her. There had been no damage to her, though, because she had been unable to even attempt to resist, because of the demonic power influenced over her. But it wasn't the rape itself that made her feel such emotions. She knew she could not have stopped it even if she tried. The reason she felt so bad was that she liked it. 

            Unfortunately for her, the body reacts to certain stimulus no matter what the mind wishes. When one has not eaten in a while, the inevitable feeling of hunger ensues. When one needs to urinate, the desire will always rise gradually until one is relieved. And when one receives sexual stimulus, the body follows its nature and is aroused, even leading to orgasm. Caska did not, indeed could not reasonably, know this. So she felt incomparable shame and guilt for this. How could she? How could she enjoy such pleasure from a man that had not only cast her aside, but killed her men as well. The only family she had ever known. All gone. Killed for no reason other than to fulfill a selfish man's dream. They robbed even of the ability to give their lives. They had simply been taken. He had even forced Guts, her one true love, to watch as he raped her. _He had forced to watch me enjoy it. _She felt she had betrayed him. And everyone else that died that day.

            _I am worthless, _she thought. She caught a glimpse of Guts out of the corner of her eye. At that, she could hold it in no longer. The tears flowed and did not stop.

* * * * *

            "Caska…" said Guts, uncertainly. There really were no words for the occasion. All he knew was that he had just seen the woman he loved violated in a manner no one should have to have gone through. _And he will die for it, _he thought, becoming angry.

            She did not respond. In fact, if it were possible, she was crying more than before.

            "Caska… we… need to find shelter. And clothes." The only words Guts could manage to get out.

            "Leave me alone," said Caska. "Just let me die."

            Under normal circumstances, he would tell her to stop acting like a weak woman. This, however, hardly qualified as "normal." He wasn't feeling too good either. He sat down next to her and watched her. _I'm so sorry, _he though. _I couldn't protect you. I… failed you._ Tears welled up in his own eyes, now. He watched as she continued to cry. After a while, her body slumped into the sand, and he realized that she had cried herself to sleep. Gently, silently, he retrieved the swords, then picked her up, set her over his shoulder, and headed away from the lake's waters and toward the trail. 

            _But I will not fail you again._

* * * * *

            When she awoke, she found herself lying next to a blazing fire. She had been covered in a blanket, and clothes were folded neatly in a pile from her. There was also a bowl of fresh stew, some slightly stale bread, and a water skin near her. Still in a daze, she put on her clothes, and ate by the fire. She tried not to think of  anything- anything at all- except for eating the next bite of stew. She had just about finished when she saw Guts emerge from the forest-line. 

            "Good. You're awake. I was beginning to worry about you." Guts said, trying, and failing, to sound as if he were in high spirits. _How did Judeau ever manage to do that, anyway? _"You've been asleep most of the day."

            Caska couldn't say anything. She turned her head down and away.

            "While you were asleep, I… went and found a couple of the horses… that hadn't run too far away."

            Silence. _C'mon, Caska, say something. Anything._

            "Where did you find these clothes?" said Caska, after a pause.

            "You really are out of it, aren't you?" Guts joked. _Not that I blame you in the slightest, _he added, mentally. "Look around."

            "…Oh." They were at the last area the Band of the Hawk. The last place they had enjoyed with their brothers in arms; a fact whose notice did not come without a tinge of grief. 

            "Sorry I couldn't find any armor. Neither you or I were what you would call the standard body type for what was left."

            "And I assume swords were also out of the question as well." 

            "Actually… I wouldn't say that." Said guts. He walked into one of the tents and retrieved both their swords. "Don't ask how they got here."

            She didn't have to. Each sword now bore the strange, spider-like symbol that she and Guts bore as well. "Griffith…"

            "Yeah." Said Guts. Then, after a strained silence, "Listen… Caska, I'm… sorry."

            _Huh!? _"For… what?"

            "I failed to protect you from him. I did all I could, but I was not strong enough to protect you. Forgive me."

            "You fool," she said. _I can't believe _he's _apologizing to _me_! It should be the other way around. _"You don't have to apologize to me. Like you said, you did all you could, right? There's no shame in losing and putting your all into it. Looks like you paid with your eye, anyway. Of course you have my forgiveness. It's… me who should be apologizing… to you."

            It was Guts's turn to be amazed. "For what?"

            "For… giving into Griffith… so easily." I could have done something, _anything_, to fight it. And I didn't."

            "Caska," said Guts, "I was there. I saw the whole thing. It wasn't like you had a whole lot of options. Hell, any options for that matter. You don't have anything to feel guilty about."

            "It's not that simple, Guts! I…" tears welled up in her eyes, "…I enjoyed it. Too much."

            Dead silence. In that moment, all sound had ceased to exist.

            "You hate me, don't you." Said Caska. _I don't blame you, Guts. I hate me too._

After another pause. "No, Caska. I don't hate you. I don't blame you." He noticed the confused look on Caska's eyes. "I mean, think about it. He was a demon. _The_ demon. He spoke to me inside of my head, even. I wouldn't be surprised that among the abilities he had gained, mind control would be one of them."

            "I guess so," said Caska, not entirely convinced. "But I still feel… I don't know. Guilty or something."

            "I don't know what to tell you about that. Heck I don't really know much of anything right now. I'm still sorting out everything that happened yesterday. Hell, I don't even know if it _was _yesterday. I guess the only thing that will help us figure out anything is time. And my guess is that if we stay in this camp, we won't have much of that either. Midland is no doubt looking for us, and it isn't the first time they'd found one of our camps. And I highly doubt Chuder would extend us any grace. I guess that leaves us only one place to go. We can sort out everything there. And we'll have plenty of time to do it, supposing we even reach it."

            "Where's that?" Asked Caska.

            Guts smiled. "An old friend. And boy is he in for a surprise."

            They mounted their horses, and headed out of camp.

            "Wow. You have friends?" Caska half-joked.

            "Yeah, who knew."

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Yes I know. Evil. And some of you won't take long to guess who that old friend is. But many plot twists abound in this series. Many haven't even come into my head. Don't worry. Next one will have a decent amount of blood and violence. Honestly, though, if you watched Berserk for the blood nd violence, you missed out on a _lot._ Read and review, as always. 


	3. Ambush

Okay! Thanks for all the review. That's not a typo. Review. One. Vespera, yes, I agree I had Guts and Caska talk about their issues very, very soon. Part of it was because they at that point had been through too much weird shit not to say something, and had already developed a certain knack of not letting each other hold in emotions. The other part of it is that you can only take so much angst before you puke. Okay. (I use that a lot.)

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any part of Berserk. I do not make any money off this. And since we're in the habit of pointing out the painfully obvious, I  

Ambush 

So on they rode, saying nothing. They had been through, said, and lost too much for either of them to find anything worth the energy to say. The both made passing attempts at a joke or two, but other than that, they rode in complete silence. Guts was busying himself at a feeble attempt to lay things out inside his mind, while Caska was making her best attempt not to think of anything at all.

I know she's still affected by what happened to her, Guts thought. Not that I blame her. God, I can't even begin to fathom what I'd be going through if it had happened to me. He looked in her direction; trying to study her, get a feeling of what was going on inside her head. As he did this, she looked up, and their eyes met, only a split-second, before she averted her eyes, apparently finding something on the horizon worth contemplation. I just wish there were something I could do about it. _Anything._ Damn it, I never have been very well versed in people's feelings!

It was just as well they hadn't been really speaking, because not long after they had taken off, they started hearing noises from the tree line that spoke nothing of the wind. Guts and Caska stopped in time with each other, and slowly scanned the tree line. _Something's wrong, _thought Guts. _I can just feel it. _His feelings were correct, for just then, a unit from a familiar army stepped out, at once, from all directions.

"Ambush," Muttered Guts.

"No shit. And look, it's our old friends," Said Caska. "Midland."

            "We will never stop chasing you, for what you did to the great kingdom of Midland!" shouted the unit commander. " We will wipe the band of the hawk from the earth!"

            _A little late for that, _thought Caska. "Don't think you'll be able to stop us," she said.

            "I think we have the user hand in this battle, little lady." The unit commander said with a big, stupid grin. 

            "Don't be too sure about that. This isn't the first time we faced insurmountable odds," said Guts, drawing his sword. "This time will be no different."

            "Are you quite sure of that? I agree you are warriors of great strength and skill. I saw the final battle against Chuddar. But tell me, Commander of the Hawks raiders… how you plan to win at half strength? Do you really believe you can wield that big sword of yours with only one hand?"

            "What the…" Guts started to say. He then looked at his left arm. _Oh. Yeah. Shit. _In the midst of all the strife he and Caska had gone through, he had forgotten that he had cut his own left arm off, at the elbow, in a last ditch effort to save Caska. _Well, now what?_

The reply came in the form of an enraged black woman with a sword. It came so quickly that no one really had react. Caska had jumped off her horse, run to the nearest soldier and cut his head clean off. While the body was still falling, she pulled the sword out of its hand and tossed to Guts.

            _God, I love this woman. _Instead of trying to figure out how the hell he was going to be able to wield this gigantic sword with one hand, now he could battle with ease. And so he did. He jumped off his own horse and dashed to a spot in the group where the soldiers had stood too tightly together. Realizing he wouldn't be able to cleave through armor quite as easily as he would have otherwise been able to, he made sure to aim for weak points. He slashed off the heads of the first two soldiers as they were drawing their swords. Engaging the next, he cut the sword arm off, and one of his legs, then kicked him to the ground. He parried the advance of the next soldier, and kicked him in the chest. This didn't do any damage to the soldier but knocked him back a bit. He was about to attack the fifth soldier, but the soldier kneeled down and placed the sword at his feet. 

            "You saved my life in Chuddar. I have no intention of fighting you today."

            Guts nodded, lowering his sword.

            "_What're you doing, soldier! Pick up your sword and RUN HIM THROUGH!"_

"Sir, I will not fight this man. I owe him my life."

            _Well that was certainly unexpected, _thought Caska. She couldn't even remember that guy. The only people that fought in the same area as the Hawks were the Hawks. _Wait a minute. I do remember him. He used to be one of the Hawks Raiders, _She thought. _One of the deserters…_

That bit of information had not been lost on Guts, either. "Good to see you again, Justus," he said, quietly

            "You as well, sir."

            "How'd you manage to make it in the Midland Army without being killed for being a Hawk."

            "It might surprise you to know, sir, but not every hawk is as prominent as you and Caska might be."

            Turning to his fellow soldiers, Justus said, "This man is Guts, Commander of the Hawks Raiders. He defeated the greatest knight in Chuddar. He slew a hundred men in a single battle. He may have only one arm, but there are also only fifty of us… well, forty-five now. So it all sounds about even. Tipped to their favor, when you factor in that this is Caska, second in command of the Band of the Hawk. Attack if you will, but I wouldn't. Even if I didn't already owe him my life."

            None moved.

            "What are you fools waiting for? ATTACK!"

            Still, no one moved.

            Guts looked up at their commander. "Seems as if they don't want to fight, commander."

            Guts received a scowl in reply. 

            Caska decided to ensure the fight did not continue. "Commander, I think I have a solution that will work for both our parties. You let us leave without quarrel, and we will leave you our swords."

            "What do I need with a couple of swords?

            "How else are you going to prove the Band of the Hawk has been vanquished?"

            A smile swept across the commander's face at the offer, but then a look of doubt.

"What about the rest of the Hawks? Where are they?"

"Wiped out by an enemy against which I hope you never have to clash swords. Head down the road and you'll see some of the bodies."

            "And walk into a trap? I don't think so, little lady."

            _If he keeps calling me, "Little Lady," I may kill him anyway. _"Need I remind you that Guts has only one arm?"

            "You've got a point there. Fine. It's a deal, But we will find you if you're lying."

            "Agreed." And with that, guts and Caska mounted their horses, throwing their swords to the ground. It wasn't much of a problem to Guts, who at this point wasn't fighting with his own sword anyway.

            "One more thing," Guts added. "Justus is to remain unharmed."

            "He disobeyed a direct order. I will deal with him as I please. No deal."

            "He also saved your lives. Not to mention your pride, if you could set it aside long enough to see that. And you know damn well that his actions will give you higher status in Midland."

            "Fine. Justus remains unharmed."

            Guts nodded, and mounted his horse. Caska, following his lead, mounted hers. They started back down the path they were headed in. They got about ten feet before Justus ran after them. "Wait!" He yelled. "Take me with you!"

            Guts and Caska stopped but did not turn around. Justus positioned himself in front of the horses. "Take me with you," Justus repeated. "Please."

            "No, Justus. Stay with your commander," said Guts.

            "But… You're my commander!" said Justus, the second part almost in a whisper.

            "I dare say you've found a new home. The Band of the Hawk is dead, Justus. And it looks like these men need you anyway. Don't worry, though. You'll see us again."

            The mix of emotions on Justus's face was too complex to read. There was a long silence, finally interrupted by the commander of the unit from Midland.  
            "Justus! Hurry up! We have work to do."

            "Promise me I'll see you two again," Justus said with pleading eyes.

            They both nodded. "Don't worry, Justus. Think of it this way. You owe me a life debt again," said Guts.

            Justus looked confused, for a second. Then he burst out in laughter. "I guess I do, Guts, I guess I do."

            With that, Guts and Caska continued their journey. From behind them, they heard the unit commander bellowing out orders. "Justus! Get back in place! Everyone else! Move out!" And with that, the unit headed in the opposite direction toward the Hawks' camp.

* * * * *

            _Hmm, _thought Griffith. _Interesting. They managed to win the battle with minimal violence. I have a feeling that if Guts were alone, I would be enjoying a one-handed slaughter at the hands of my precious pet. But this… this is far more entertaining. Let's see how they handle the next thing I throw at them._

The whole time, Griffith had been watching the scene as it ensued.

* * * * *

            Meanwhile, the Midland unit marched upon the Hawks' camp. Upon arrival, they saw the bodies of the Hawks that had died before the Great Eclipse. Torsos missing all appendages, severed legs, and pools of dried blood were everywhere.

            "Oh… my… God." Justus said with blurry, tear-filled eyes.

            "Heh heh. They weren't lying. This is too good to be true. I defeated the Band of the Hawk on my own, and only lost five men in the process! They'll make me a general for this!"

            Justus wept. 

Okay, boys and girls, that's part three. As you notice, I'm caving in and adding titles to my work now. And with the addition of Justus, There will now be two storylines, though Justus's will be lesser in length. Tune in next week. Some familiar faces will be showing up. Now go review!


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